The similar phrase 'Worldly Christianity' is one used by Bonhoeffer. It's J Gresham Machen that I want to line up most closely with. See his Christianity and culture here. Having done commentaries on Proverbs (Heavenly Wisdom) and Song of Songs (Heavenly Love), a matching title for Ecclesiastes would be Heavenly Worldliness. For my stance on worldliness, see 3 posts here.

Lord's Day March 22 2020


As with most of you, yesterday was a strange and unprecedented day. I didn't go out all day, I didn't trim my beard (sorted now) and I didn't wear a suit and tie. That was different for a start. Eleri enjoyed opening her Mother's Day cards. They included this one

At 10 am our church musicians arranged for us to sing together on zoom. I say sing together but as you know the deal means singing together is not an option so they played piano and sang with the rest of us muted but (hopefully singing along. They made good choices - Praise my soul the King of heaven including the rare spot on verse
Frail as summer's flower we flourish,
Blows the wind and it is gone;
But while mortals rise and perish
God endures unchanging one,
Praise Him, praise Him, Praise Him, praise Him,
Praise the High Eternal One!
Also a version of Psalm 46 (my suggestion), one other from Christian Hymns and one not in there by John Ryland that includes the lines

Plagues and deaths around me fly,
Till He bids I cannot die:
Not a single shaft can hit
Till the God of love thinks fit.
Then at 11 (actually it was five past by the time we got round to it) we accessed the recording that I prepared on Friday. My teenage son found it hard to cope but it seemed to work well.
We then had an early lunch (rare thing on a Sunday and read the Bible together. I read some theology and listened to most of my son's service from Aberystwyth and to the Christian Instititute Update and Steve Nicholls' latest five minutes in church history. Later we had some visitors- we were very careful to keep our distance.
At out usual evening time we zoomed again. I preached a sermon from Psalm 46 and we had a good chat. There were nineteen of us - more than normal on a Sunday evening.
After that we did zoom with most of the family in Wales and that was good too. Not a bad day all told.

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